The urban development department on October 24 abolished the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's authority to issue food licences to the hotels and restaurants.
The move was come after the policy of Ease of Doing Business, and the department said that the central regulation of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been in place for more than a decade now.
Because of this, AMC will incur an average loss of Rs10 crore. "We had the authority of issuing food and health licences for AMC limits. Those who want to start an eatery must to have a food licence from us. AMC used to earn Rs10 crore by issuing and renewing licences," said Dr Bhavin Solanki, in-charge medical officer of health.
As per an estimate, there are around two lakh such food units in city. Earlier in 2016, municipal corporations of Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar had unilaterally withdrawn their health licence issuing practice.
However, the civic body can keep checking the licences. "We have to check food samples at eateries to keep a tab on the items.
We will make sure that people are getting healthy, hygienic and standard food," added Dr Solanki.
The civic body randomly collects food samples and sends them for laboratory testing. If the sample fails quality test, the seller gets punished and a fine is levied. Recently, the civic body collected Rs 1 crore in fines.
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